Hey Women of the Challenge! My son and I just did a completely statistically randomized drawing involving lists and dice. Just like Las Vegas. I wanted to honor the extra efforts being put in by these lovely Get Some Challengers by giving away a prize. Don’t forget Challengers-You have until April 10th to raise those numbers sky high. Pullups Pullups Pullups. Big pot of cash waiting for someone. Today though, CrossFit Works is giving away a French Manicure at Panache just because you are awesome.
Panache is owned by Andi. If you are around at 6am you can meet Andi. She is the one who looks glamorous at 6am in a way that I’d have trouble recreating if I had an entire Saturday to do it. I don’t actually know what a French Manicure is, but the hilarious coincidence is that our winner happens to be an expert in things French. Probably has something to do with her fiance who happens to be…French. SHANNON!!!! You win a French Manicure at Panache. Keep it up sister.
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Raymond here has found one legit use for our foam rollers. I believe perched on the top of the stack is an Orca named Willy. There is another more Crossfit-related use for these things however. A lot of times we look at training hard, doing CrossFit, as the magic pill to make us wonderful. Training is only one piece of keeping the body well. I’ve written before about sleep and many times about food, but there is another aspect of caring for your physical body which involves caring for your muscle tissue. There are therapies and therapists of all varieties than can benefit your hard worked muscles. There is also the everyday, cheap, in-house approach. Foam Rolling is one good one. Listen to Jon Gilsom of Again Faster describe how and why foam rolling should be an EVERYDAY part of your crossfitting. This is an excellent video of foam rolling. Watch it please. There will be a test later. Click here: Foam Rolling with Again Faster. PS. If you are still having trouble with muscle and joint pain even if you move properly and you care well for your muscles, I hope you will turn to the potentially inflammatory nature of your diet to look for another contributor.
This is what the rest of the world of fitness is reminding you about these days. Even many CrossFit Affiliates are urging their clients to get their nutrition dialed in because swim suit season is right around the corner. I am urging you to get your nutrition dialed in so you can live longer and healthier. Not much pizazz I know, but the great thing is that you’ll also look better in your swim suit. Except we live in the desert where there aren’t any beaches. Never mind the details. If you have not had a chance to hear the basics of the Paleo Diet this Tuesday night, March 16 at 7pm is your chance. This lecture is free and open to the public. Even though I love to talk about food I do limit myself to one hour, so you can head for your bed at 8:00pm. In that colander in the picture there are enough species of greens to nearly put me, in one dinner, ahead of the average American’s yearly plant species intake. Did you know that was an important piece of pre-agricultural diets? They actually ate MORE kinds of vegetables than the farmers. You can look at my blog to find out what I did with these little leaves: www.huntitgatheritworkit.blogspot.com
I want to congratulate the people who came this morning and got a rowing lesson. It is really exciting to know that people are into learning new things and getting better. Jerry really clarified some things for me, and I think, most of us there. I never knew that when the chain makes that snapping sound when people get rowing hard, it is because they are pushing the handle back with force on what should be the recovery phase of the rowing stroke. I knew it was bad, but didn’t know the cause. We also had a chance to feel how much upper back and core strength are used to maintain accurate posture for the most efficient rowing technique. As with all things crossfit, listening to Jerry, and watching him row, reminded me again of how you can utilize good body mechanics with solid movement technique and do more work, faster with less fatigue. When I think about our modern society I often think about, and observe, how many of us don’t really know how to move our bodies well. My uncles-strong, practical men-shake their heads when they watch a “city” person try to do a physical task. What they diagnose as lack of common sense, is partly a lack of familiarity with how to get your body to function efficiently for you. Jerry shed a little light on how to move efficiently on the rower. I think he has much more to offer, but first we have to nail down what we learned today. I believe there were a dozen of us there today. So, a call to “Jerry’s dozen” to hop on the rowers when you can and practise. Thanks Jerry!
Hey all, Your power snatches are looking better and better these days. The two primary things I’ve noticed watching you all are: 1.Using your arms to get the bar off the ground. Your arms shouldn’t really do the work. 2. Being too far forward onto the balls of your feet. Get your weight back in your heels. Here are two starting positions for you to check out. I am in a more “beginner” position. When I get blue shoes I’ll move to the advanced position. Notice that Dave’s hips are lower than mine and his back is more upright. You must resist the temptation to let your hips pop up first. Keep your back up.
Those of you signed up to learn better rowing technique don’t forget, tomorrow at 11:00am. Jerry made me feel a little better about my paltry calories from the 5min row for calories, something about short legs. Ryan C. I think, rowed over 100 cal. Anyone else?
I think Christy looks radiant. She has just finished her 75 burpees. This is an interesting workout. Pretty dull on paper. Lackluster on the whiteboard. But the effect… As Dave explained it, it is possible to do burpees until you pass out. You really don’t exactly reach muscular failure. You can’t possibly fail technically. You aren’t putting yourself at risk of permanent injury if you get sloppy. It is just those aching legs and bursting lungs. Your lungs will draw another breath and your legs will get you up off the floor again. Your pace is determined, in part, by attitude, fortitude and ability to suffer. Obviously, fitness plays a huge role in your time, but what I predict is that you will be impressed by your improvement in the very near future even though your fitness will not have had time to progress all that much. I was so pleased watching all of you that just kept moving, no matter how slowly. You didn’t stop. High five to all of you that just kept going. Congrats also to the lovely and flexible Mateo M. who did it in 3:11! Someone get him next time.
Andres’ class has a certain responsibility. Usually it is your trainer’s job to help you keep on track with your goals and help you with accountability. But Andres has set himself an impressive goal of cleaning up the sailor language. The thing is, everyone loves a sailor, but this will be helpful for those of us trying to create family/work/safe video with Andres in it. I believe it is 5 burpees for each linguistic misstep. Last night, I think it was 35. I think your class should keep a total burpee count for the month for you. This will be interesting. I know you all live in the desert. Some of you are even from the desert, so it is absolutely legitimate that rowing might not be your best skill. But, now, you have to row sometimes and I promise IT GETS MUCH EASIER IF YOU DO IT PROPERLY!! Flailing around on the rower at high speed does not get you very far very fast. I remember standing behind 4 men on our rowers, one of whom was the always-magnificent Mike Heinz. Mike is a very good rower, like the kind that gets calories in the high 20s on “Fight Gone Bad”. I watched all 4 screens on the rowers. The other 3 guys were rowing like mad men. Their boats would have capsized. Man overboard. Mike was rowing so smoothly he could have been taking his Grandma out for a picnic. Mike had fewer stroked per minute and was quite a lot faster than the other guys. Do you want to grow up and row like Mike H.? Picnics on the Thames and all that? or do you want your picnic hamper at the bottom of the Charles River headed into the sewage sludge of Boston Harbor? Do you want the Harvard crew to have to come rescue you? or do you want to win a CrossFit workout someday? I’m pretty sure when Linda was rowing this morning her mental imagery was right here. Just where Concept 2 wants it. Check this out. 
Jerry P. knows how to row. Most of you haven’t met Jerry because he comes to the 7am which is too bad for you all. I am shameless when it comes to pulling out all stops to improve my CrossFitters however, so rather than Tom G. being the only one who gets better at rowing, I asked Jerry to help all of you. He said, “yes” because he is so nice. March 13, Saturday at 11:00am for about an hour. Jerry, please chime in with any comments that might convince these folks to come and learn from you. Did I say it was free? Sign up on the counter.
A crew of us, Carl, Matt T, Janice, Andres, Dave and Kate headed out to get the Climb for a Cure started off right on Saturday. We teamed up with Simply Dinners owner, and 9am CrossFitter, Maureen to send the Climbers off warmed up and looking for handmade chocolates. Carl was undoubtedly the best at making sure every person there knew about CrossFit Works, but I think it was Maureen’s chocolates that really brought people close. As for the warm up, nothing makes me feel more like I’m on a silly TV exercise show than doing jumping jacks on stage to music with Andres, Kate, Janice and Matt doing jumping jacks behind me…Anyway, it was very inspiring to see all those people out there with their teams ready to tackle A Mtn. If you happened to be the proud recipient of a blue wrist band, send an email to us through our “Contact” option and you might win a prize…
We here at CrossFit Works like to see what you are made of every now and then. What happens when you are asked to do something unusual with the potential to make you look silly, fall down or gasp!…lose? Without getting too philosophical, CrossFit done properly with a team/group component can strengthen you for life in the real world. We can give you practice with things way outside your comfort zone. We can put you on the spot and have everyone watch you. We can ask you to do something you really don’t want to do. What better place to be put in one of those uncomfortable, challenging situations than in your group class with all its accompanying camaraderie. I’m pretty sure the definition of camaraderie involves sometimes making fun of your comrades. Check out what happened (by clicking on the word “happened”) to Miranda O., one of CrossFit Headquarter’s staff members during the Utah, Nevada sectionals last week. How cool is that she was laughing at herself. That is CrossFit. Not to mention Miranda’s unbelievable performance. Enjoy the ridiculous. It seems that Wheelbarrow Champions of the 6pm class are Jordan and Dietrich with Crandall and Mike G. close on their wheels, I mean heels-haha. Check out the 6pm class as they listen to Dave explain “Fran”. Hilarious. I believe we should hold a contest for the best cartoon captions for each class member. Remember, for lots of these folks this is their first “Fran” experience.
And-Andres’ 5:30pm class got a little surprise check on their progress in the Women’s Get-Some Challenge. Everyone’s pushup numbers are inching up. Excellent. Next time Will, during the partner carry, I’d go with Danielle or Rene. You’ll be safer.
Congratulations on “Fran” yesterday everyone. Two standouts were the always lovely Mike G. who did his in 5:35! A significant personal best. And…drumroll, maybe? Midori S. took SEVEN MINUTES off her previous time with the same version of the workout!!! Sometimes, measuring and timing things is fabulously rewarding. How are all you Get-Some Challengers doing? Have you forgotten? I wanted to inspire you all with a profile of a CrossFit athlete. Nearly every day I hear questions from women about how they don’t want to look like a “crossfit woman” or if they don’t know what that is, about how they don’t want big bulky muscles. This is interesting to me, since the flip side of not wanting to appear too strong might be that you are more comfortable appearing weak, which breaks my heart. I’m all for being proud of looking strong. But each of us has our own world view and it is true that wearing those super skinny jeans is not always so easy when your quads are, well…existant. However, my point today is that much of how you end up appearing does not have to do with how much weight you can lift or how strong you are, it has to do with your genetics. I want you to look at this picture of Lauren Plumey, CrossFit Games competitor out of CrossFit Milford, 5th place at last year’s Northeast Qualifiers.
Age: 29 Height 5′ 8″ Weight 131 Date of Birth Jan. 29 1980 Place of Birth New Haven, CT Date Starting CrossFit May, 2008 Lives in West Haven, CT Affiliate: CrossFit Milford Fran 4.12 Cindy 23 Helen 8.12 Diane 10.32 Grace 3.08 Fight Gone Bad 321 Filthy Fifty 21.12 Deadlift 315 Press 95 Back Squat 205 Clean and jerk 145 Max Pull-ups 37 5′8″ at 131lbs means that is a pretty lithe girl! But she is also very strong. Pretty cool. Good rainy Sunday evening all. Paleo soup on the stove right now. I’ll get it on my blogspot soon and check out Kate’s most recent post!! Fantastic. Playing restaurant with Paleo options. Remember you can find links to our individual blogs if you look above on the “Trainer” option.
I’d like to exhort you all to make a commitment to your consistency this week. On your behalf I’ve taken a little look at the week’s programming and it is GOOD. But only if you actually do it the way it is meant to be done. The second workout follows the first and on and on. That is how you benefit. Our workouts are decently impressive as stand alone things, but together…strung together like lovely lines in a poem…they are awesome. Looking at the attendance rosters for the last couple weeks we see a sad trend. This trend is described as “Where are you??” You don’t really want to fit those statistics of the average person who does great in January, declines in February and by March just pays the gym membership so the gym owner can sit waiting, lonely-like for their clients who used to come. I will tell you that one of the workouts, not Monday’s (but you all come on Monday, I don’t know where you are by Thursday though) is a giant favorite that we get asked for a lot. We have it for you, but if you don’t come you don’t get to do it. It is gonna be a good week. Be here.
Mmmmm, lunch. Half a bag of Trader Joe’s mache (or by its non-Yuppie, weed name, lamb’s quarters), 1/2 box of Trader Joe’s microgreens, 4oz leftover grilled steak, a little olive oil, sea salt and black pepper. What does it mean to be ready for a Level II nutrition talk? It means you have committed to taking full responsibility for what you put in your body and the impact it has on your well being and performance. You’ve written it down and you are ready to talk about it honestly. It means you have graduated beyond saying things like “I eat pretty well”. It means you have moved past thinking you are eating optimally and actually assessing it. It also means you have, at least for a few weeks. put your addiction to and reliance on “comfort foods” to the test. The last two authors in the mainstream media that have written about the Paleo diet both concluded that it was not reasonable because it was too difficult to give up certain foods they missed and therefore it didn’t get the thumbs up. Maybe they should have concluded with, “although there are thousands of other people following this diet and doing phenomenally well on it, I simply didn’t have the ability to do it and therefore the benefits are beyond my reach.” More importantly than anything else when it comes to assessing what you eat and how you respond to it, honesty is important. If you repeatedly reach for “comfort foods” even though you know they contribute to sluggishness and slow performance or weight gain, then you are not the master of your mouth. There is absolutely a time and place for all kinds of foods, maybe even green jello and twinkies. The key is, “Are you in control of what goes into your mouth? Do you eat the food you eat because you really want to and you know it will benefit you? or because you can’t stop yourself, but you tell yourself and me and your fellow crossfitters it isn’t that bad to eat the way you do?” Try keeping a food journal for 3 weeks, coming to a Level II nutrition talk and working through some of this stuff. Or ask Lori L. who recently said that when she finally just committed to doing it, the weight started melting off and it wasn’t that hard after all. Nice work Lori.
I would like to highlight Alma U. today for 2 BIG reasons. First of all, Alma is showing a little of that “I really want to get this figured out spirit!” which we love. After her 1RM power snatch last week during class she knew she could get it a little better with more practice, so she came to Open Gym on Saturday and added 5lbs! And, almost as cool as adding 5lbs to her Power Snatch, Alma has lost 4 clothing sizes!!! Cool. Alma is cool. She drives a truck and isn’t afraid of horses. Maybe we should have a hay bale tossing workout sometime. Would you win Alma? I’m not afraid of hay bales since my family produces those, but horses…another story. Give Alma a high five when you see her. |
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